Dark Phoenix Director Explains What Jean Grey’s Cracked Face Means

X-Men and movie fans were treated to the first trailer for Dark Phoenix this week, which features Jean Grey slowly succumbing to the great power inside of her. The final shot of the trailer featured Jean with glowing eyes and a cracked face, seemingly implying that she was losing her battle of wills. According to director Simon Kinberg, this look is meant to signify the first phase of Jean's transformation into the Phoenix and how her control over herself is literally cracking. He said in a recent interview:

That's not maximum [Phoenix]. That's a two or a three on the Dark Phoenix spectrum. It is a manifestation of her transformation from the Jean we know into Phoenix. Over the span of the movie, we see different symptoms or iterations of that. The lines on her face let you know that Jean is losing control, and that force inside her is trying to escape, push through, take over. Those cracks are almost as if something inside her that's more powerful than she is trying to push out of her body.

Jean Grey's transformation into the Phoenix will have more than one phase, at least, according to director Simon Kinberg. The writer-director broke down the first trailer of Dark Phoenix for Empire, shedding a little light onto what Jean will be going through in the superhero movie. The cracking face is symbolic of the fact that Jean Grey is losing control of the power inside of her and it is quite literally pushing to get outside of her. Over the course of the movie, Jean will continue to grow in strength, and it will have a physical effect over her body.

The cracking face is only the first stop of Jean's transformation as the Phoenix Force (the cosmic entity that takes control of her in the comics) fights for dominance. Jean will only grow more powerful as the movie progresses, but it's unknown what her final look in the movie will be. I imagine that it will involve lots of fire in the shape of a bird.

Taking place nine years after the events of X-Men: Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix finds the X-Men having to battle one of their own as an incident in space causes Jean Grey to slowly succumb to the unstoppable power inside of her. Can the X-Men find a way to reach Jean or will they have to take more drastic measures to end her growing threat? The film stars Sophie Turner, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, and Jessica Chastain as an unknown extraterrestrial entity.

Dark Phoenix has been pushed back a few times now, but it is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters on June 7, 2019. To learn more about the movie, here's everything we know so far about Dark Phoenix.